Taxis plan strike to put brakes on unauthorized competition

Hailing a red taxi Wednesday morning in San Jos&eacute; could be trickier than normal.

The Costa Rican capital&acute;s taxistas have planned a strike starting 6 a.m. to steer the government into taking a tougher stance against individuals and companies setting up their car service without a flota roja (red fleet) permit.

Taxi driver Sergio Castillo told The Tico Times he might participate, &ldquo;at least for a while,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&acute;s so (the government) gets rid of unauthorized taxis&hellip; they&acute;re not real taxis,&rdquo; he said.

The government Tuesday called a meeting with representatives from the sector and transport authorities at 11 a.m. Wednesday to resolve the problem, and in the hopes of curbing the strike.

&ldquo;The Executive Branch has made a respectful but ardent call to members of these sectors (of transport) to participate in dialogue so that the announced mobilization called for tomorrow (Wednesday) doesn&acute;t affect the thousands of citizens who, day to day, need to commute to their place of work, education or other destination,&rdquo; the government said in a statement.